The To Do List of a Dissertating Truepenny

[truepenny]

1. email dis. director and outside reader (yes, I got one, because the nice professor I don't know said she'd do it!).

2. write section on The Second Maiden's Tragedy.

3. finish writing my long and argumentative section on morality.

4. write section on The Tragedy and Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois and figure out what the fuck I'm trying to say about Chapman.

5. clean up the Hamlet chapter.

6. integrate all the quotes I've written down into their relevant sections (when written) before I forget what the various critics were arguing.

7. reread The Revengers Tragedy, The Changeling, and The Atheist's Tragedy so that I will actually have something to say about them.

8. read Kristeva, Dollimore, Greenblatt.

Obviously, not all of this is going to happen today. But if I write it down and post it, I'm less likely to let myself slack off unforgivably this afternoon.

Onward.

Comments

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Obviously, not all of this is going to happen today. But if I write it down and post it, I'm less likely to let myself slack off unforgivably this afternoon.

That method has been working for me, very well.

Gawp

[joatamon]

You make it all sound remarkably easy. Or at least, very well planned.

::eyes own dissertation::

Re: Gawp

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, that's a lie. Trust me.

I can lay the bits out in order tidily, given a certain amount of hand-waving (as, for example, past #6), but actually DOING it is a horse of an entirely different color.

But I do find that breaking it down into discrete tasks at least means that I don't get overwhelmed by the sheer enormous flaiing untidiness of it all, and thus don't end up paralyzed (Richard Adams's word "tharn" applies nicely here) and unable to do anything at all.

Other than that, it's just grim bloody-mindedness.

Good luck with yours!

Re: Gawp

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

"All dead! O, zorn!" *g*

You will make it. You have to, because I kinda wanna read this damned thing when you're done with it.

One brick at a time....

[renenet.livejournal.com]

Forward...into the past!

Re: Gawp

[joatamon]

Thank you. It is currently the big pink elephant lurking in the corner. When I do eventually get around to writing it, I'm going to follow the discrete tasks approach, I think. Biteable chunks and all that.

[maureenkspeller.livejournal.com]

Obviously, not all of this is going to happen today. But if I write it down and post it, I'm less likely to let myself slack off unforgivably this afternoon.


I ought to do something similar myself; it's a good plan.

Re: Gawp

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Mine did the lurking pink elephant thing for YEARS. Literally. I was admitted to candidacy in 1999, and it's only since about mid-June (well, here (http://www.livejournal.com/users/truepenny/120178.html)) that it's actually become the thing at the top of the list, rather than the thing way down at the very bottom, under things like "learn to play the violin."

The fact that I actually got much of it written between '99 and this June is a testament to the Puritan work ethic of my forebears. But there's all the difference in the world between that and between what I'm doing now. Instead of being a pink elephant in the corner, it's become this demonic winged mink clinging to my shoulder and chittering in my ear. All the difference in the world.

Sorry about the image. Brain v. weird.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

It does help. It may not carry me past item no. 2 on my list--although the section is already almost 2,000 words long, so I'm not going to feel too badly if that's all I get done this afternoon--but it does definitely help.

Re: Gawp

[joatamon]

No, I really like the image of a demonic winged mink. I only wish I could draw:)

My dissertation is merely an undergraduate dissertation, a paltry thing. But then I hope to have a masters' dissertation to worry about.

::sigh:: Why do I do this to myself?

Re: Gawp

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Why do I do this to myself?

A question I've been asking myself for years. If you come up with an answer, let me know. :)

Re: Gawp

[joatamon]

AIf you come up with an answer, let me know.

I think that's pretty much a dissertation all of itself, in the realm of Masochism Studies. I've dabbled, but it's not really my field :)

[maureenkspeller.livejournal.com]

Indeed; one is, alas, overly aware of some of one's less understanding Friends gathering around for a good gigle. Maybe I should start a custom filter for posts requiring moral support or stern admonishments when I slack.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Fie on them.

Do set a filter if it will help with the thought organization and productivity issues.

The other advantage of a list, as I have just proven for the umpteenth time, is that when I'm sick to death of one item (as for example, no. 2), rather than simply saying, Oh, I give up, I'll just go websurf for pictures of wombats, I look at my list, and say, Oh, I could tackle no. 4, instead. And working on no. 4 has lead to slight inroads into no. 6.

It doesn't always work this well, of course, but today all the gears are meshing properly, and I feel productive and pleased with myself.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

That should be no. 5, not no. 4. Silly Truepenny.

Here's one I prepared earlier

[papersky.livejournal.com]

http://www.tased.edu.au/tot/ fauna/wombat.html

Re: Here's one I prepared earlier

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

But how do you happen to have a link to wombats prepped? Is this some sort of hive-writer-mind thing or serendipity or what?

Or are the wombats taking over, using mad telepathic skillz of which we wot not?

I've gone loopy and should stop typing for the good of all huamnkind.

Re: Here's one I prepared earlier

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Zorinth was looking for wombats earlier this afternoon for some project of his own, and that one was still in the "back" button of Netscape. I don't know why he wanted one.

Bluejo: Zorinth, what were you looking for wombats for?
Z: Nothing...
Bluejo: Let me rephrase that, why were you looking for wombat pictures?
Z: I wanted to find a good one.
Bluejo: But why did you want one?
Z: None of the ones I had were very clear.
Bluejo: But... I mean... what did you want one for?
Z: Oh, nothing.
Bluejo: Would that be "nothing" in the House at Pooh Corner sense of the word?
Z: (hesitates an instant and answers thoughtfully) Yes, I expect it would.

[maureenkspeller.livejournal.com]

I do keep daily lists of things that need to be done, just to keep myself straight (and I have done mighty list-things today, I might add). I'm pretty self-motivated about doing the laundry, tidying the kitchen and editing 60 pages of someone's computer manual.

It's the writing/study projects that need to be talked about to get them straight in my mind, because they're so often diffuse and spread over a long period of time. So, filter, here I come, I think.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, exactly.

I often make lists of mundane chores, but it's the dissertation that NEEDS the list, because, as I think I said upthread somewhere, without the list to disassemble the thing into discrete tasks, I go tharn and end up crouched cowering in the path of the juggernaut. Which is (a.) counterproductive and (b.) bad for the psyche.

Besides, I'd quite like to see you talk more about what you study.